Over 300 Mercury Marine employees of Fond du Lac participated in an eight-week 'Pound For Pound' weight loss challenge. From left, winning team members include: Ron Stageman, Steven Jaeger and Jeff Stueven. Not present: Walter Ross. All are employees in the Electrical Engineering Department in Product Development and Engineering. At right is FDL High School student Danny Loomans, Food For Freedom event founder and coordinator, along with Steve Cramer, vice president and CFO of Mercury Marine. For every one pound lost by an employee, Mercury Marine is donating five pounds of food to Food For Freedom. Final numbers indicated that Mercury employees shed 2,500 pounds, raising a total of 12,500 pounds of food for the local food pantries. All food will be delivered to the 24-Hour World Record Food Drive being held at Fond du Lac High School beginning at 1 p.m. on May 25.

Food For Freedom is inspiring greatness throughout Northeastern Wisconsin. From personal achievement to creative learning opportunities, the stories are impressive and continue to make an impression on the world record food drive scheduled over Memorial Weekend at Fond du Lac High School. In a 24-hour period beginning at 1 p.m. on May 25, Food For Freedom will attempt to raise 559,886 pounds of food to break the current world record held by a community in North Carolina.

Mercury Marine's Personal Achievement:

Mercury Marine's world headquarters in Fond du Lac employs approximately 3,000 employees. For eight weeks, beginning in February, over 350 of them participated in an employee wellness challenge called "Pound for Pound."

"The Pound for Pound challenge at Mercury was born out of a desire to do a few things," said Steve Cramer, CFO at Mercury and coordinator of the challenge. "Both the wellness of our employees and giving back to the communities in which we live are two important principals of our company. With the weight loss challenge we were able to lose weight, engage our employees through a fun team event and also give back to the food pantries in our area. The Food for Freedom food drive was a great tie in to this company event."

The challenge was based on the premise of rewarding local food pantries with five pounds of food for every one pound lost by an employee. At the end of the challenge, final numbers indicated that Mercury employees shed over 2,500 pounds, therefore raising a total of 12,500 pounds of food for Food For Freedom and the local pantries. "It was fun to see the 52 teams embrace not only the weight loss challenge but also the spirit and camaraderie of the event," Cramer continued. "We had teams come up with very creative names such as 'Potential Energy' and 'Gym Class Heroes'. They all weighed in together on one scale which further solidified the team spirit."

In addition to the company donation of over 12,500 pounds of food, individual participants donated over 1,000 pounds of food to local food pantries during the eight-week event. "I highly encourage other companies in the five counties that are participating in the Food for Freedom food drive to help inspire their employees to get involved," Cramer concluded. "It is a win for the company and the employees, but most importantly, it's providing much needed food for the hungry in our local communities."

Woodworth project: How Many Cans In Your Pictogram?

Seventh graders at Fond du Lac's Woodworth Middle School took an ordinary school food drive to another level by throwing a twist into their collection process. To reach their classroom team goal of 33 items of food, all seventh grade classes created a pictogram representing their daily progress and displayed it in their classroom window.

Jessica Hughes' seventh grade classroom had a good collection experience. "Reading graphs draws on critical thinking skills which are constantly being developed in our students," Hughes stated. "This food collection generated positive conversations in my classroom as we worked together applying math skills to calculate the progress and determine how much more it would take to achieve the goal."

As leaders, Woodworth teachers crafted their own incentives to motivate their students to reach the goal. Hughes will be bringing a dessert in for her students later this week. With a school goal of 1,000, Woodworth reported a final collection total of 1,227 items to be donated to Food For Freedom.

Food For Freedom will impact the lives of over 82,000 citizens currently living in poverty in Northeastern WI. All food collected at the event will be distributed to the local food pantries in Brown, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Outagamie, and Winne-bago counties.